August 7, 2017

Jab Harry Met Sejal (JHMS) is the big release today and is one of the most awaited film of the year. Film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma and hence, expectation from film is huge. Plus, film is directed by Imtiaz Ali, who have earlier given Hits in Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. Hence, without any more delay and with loads of expectation, let's do the movie review of Jab Harry Met Sejal.

Story: Harry (Shah Rukh Khan) is a tour guide in Europe. Sejal (Anushka Sharma) lost her engagement ring while having a tour across the Europe. Since, Harry was the tour guide then, Sejal seeks help from him to search her lost ring. And then story revolves around Harry and Sejal's journey across Europe and their search for the lost ring. In this process and spending time in company of Sejal, makes Harry realise love and relationships better. Sejal also experiences new found freedom, security and solace in Harry's company. What will happen next is the rest of the story.

JHMS has simply nothing to offer. Film starts slowly, is lethargic and boring. Film moves ahead in snail pace. Film picks up bit prior to 15-20 minutes of interval, till the intermission. After such a half baked and extremely tiring first half, there is a expectation that film might shoot off well in second half. But sorry, film goes further downhill from here on. There are many scenes where film hardly moves on. Honestly one will need patience to watch the movie till the end. Second half is terrible. Towards the climax film picks up a bit, but that also for just few minutes.

Direction of Imtiaz Ali is horrific. One simply can't believe that this is the same director who once directed films like Socha Na Tha, Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. There is nothing in script. Screenplay is weak and amateurish.

Performances: Shah Rukh Khan delivers a honest and competitive performance in the film. But even he can't save this film from sinking in coming days. Same goes for Anushka Sharma. She is really good, but all goes in vain. It is the amazing screen chemistry between SRK and Anushka that keeps us glued in theaters for 2 and half hours.

Locations and cinematography in the film is beautiful and commendable.

Coming to box office performance. JHMS will ride only on star power of Shah Rukh Khan. Whatever the film will do, it will do because of SRK and his hard core fan following. Neutral might stay away from it. It will be interesting to see whether SRK on his stardom can take JHMS across 100 crore or not. 150 crore is simply out of question now.

Verdict: Even die-hard fans of SRK and Anushka might dislike the film. Film is already an alien concept for desi heartland audiences of India. Hence, there is not much expectation from it in interiors and single screens.

Ratings: 1.5/5. Another 0.5 for 'Hawayein' song which come as a saviour near the interval. If you are a die-hard SRK fan, then give it a try and tell us how you feel about the film.

33 comments:

Jab Harry Met Sejal Has Strong Weekend OverseasMonday 07 August 2017 10.30 ISTBox Office India Trade NetworkGoogle+ Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest AddthisFollow Us Twitter logo linkJab Harry Met sejal has done well overseas to record the best opening of the year beating Raees by a small margin and its mainly to do with Pakistan as Raees was not released in that market. The other circuits are generally a little better for Raees. The film recorded the second best opening ever in Pakistan after Sultan which was an Eid release. The other circuits are good but with Shahrukh Khan they could have been better as the content has held the film back a bit as many markets did not grow much over the weekend. Nevertheless it is the tenth highest overseas opening of all time and the highest ever outside a festive (Eid, Xmas, Diwali) holiday period. The apprx figures of Jab Harry Met Sejal from Overseas markets are as follows.

United Kingdom - $600,000

US / Canada - $1,300,000

Gulf - $2,500,000

Australia - $350,000

Pakistan - $650,000

Far East (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia) - $400,000

The above markets contribute around $5.8 million and the rest of the world would have picked up around $1 million plus to finish at around $7 million.

Film is watchable due to the earnest performances of the leads and good music. Yes nothing else is new and we have seen all of it before. I had expected more from Imtiaz Ali, whose films till date, I have liked. Yes that also includes Tamasha. As for the Box Office predictions, it might cross 130cr and that would be it. Much better collections overseas though.

Dear Ankur,Could stop myself asking. Is the invincible era of Khans finally getting over, with Salman's Tubelight being flop and series of under performers by Shahrukh? Or these are just one odd films? (though Aamir is still foolproof)?.